Read and Speak Arabic for Beginners with Audio CD, Second Edition (Read and Speak Languages for Beginners) Review

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Read and Speak Arabic for Beginners with Audio CD, Second Edition (Read and Speak Languages for Beginners) ReviewI absolutely LOVE every thing that Jane Whitewick puts out. She makes learning Arabic easy and less stressful; especially the grammar! I had an "aha" moment when just thumbing thru her book BEFORE I even bought it on a Arabic grammar issue I had been trying to figure out for 18 months! I have to admit, that Jane's super strong British accent is kinda a distraction when hearing her speak and Mahmoud sounds kinda bizarre talking like a proper English gent sitting down to tea vs. the Arab he is; but after a while, you get over it. She knows how to rock a language and get you to learn it. She has done a recording for Arabic for the Michel Thomas Method and I have to say, because I found out it was her doing the lessons is why I bought it---she really knows her stuff. If you are desiring to learn Arabic with some ease and less stress, then I recommend you searching Amazon and buy all her books.Read and Speak Arabic for Beginners with Audio CD, Second Edition (Read and Speak Languages for Beginners) Overview
Learn helpful Arabic vocabulary without being intimidated by its non-Roman script!

Your desire to learn Arabic may be twarted by its script; how will you pick up the language if you can't understand its characters? Read and Speak Arabic for Beginners overcomes this obstacle by providing an accessible, entertaining program that will reinforce vocabulary as well as help you create basic structures.

Each of the eight topics develop your communication skills in key areas, and your progress will be reinforced by tests and puzzles. The accompanying 55-minute audio CDcontains all the key words and phrases for you to listen to and repeat. It also features entertaining listening activities and games for additional reinforcement.

Two-color layout and photographs throughout to illustrate key vocabulary.
Proven approach combines games, puzzles, flashcards, and audio to aid language.
Clear explanations of how basic phrases are used for practical communication.
Audio CD/MP3s for correct pronunciation provides speaking and listening practice and audio games; detachable flashcards allow language reinforcement.

Topics include:What is your name?; Where are you from?; What is this?; Where is it?; What's it like?;How do I get there?;Who's this?; What do you do?


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Colloquial Arabic (Levantine) (Colloquial Series) Review

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Colloquial Arabic (Levantine) (Colloquial Series) ReviewI discovered this book (without the cassette) in my public library a few months ago and liked it enough to track down the full boxed book-with-cassette edition and buy it (on Amazon, of course!).
I was pleased with it and learned a lot from it, but I should say, for starters, that I didn't come to either Arabic or language learning as a total beginner. I had studied literary Arabic over twenty years ago and knew a smattering of words and phrases in various dialects (and had also studied a whole slew of other languages and had no fear of grammatical terminology).
The book is useful if you want a brief survey of colloquial Arabic grammar (I had wondered how verb tenses other than the past worked, for instance, and I'm much less mystified now, thanks to McLoughlin's book) and some fairly interesting, lively, accessible sample texts (the usual greetings and polite expressions, a telephone conversation involving a wrong number, a humorous story about an Englishman who couldn't learn Arabic, a collection of proverbs and [mild!] curses...). I thought the story about the Englishman alone worth what I paid for the book and cassette (which was considerably below retail).
On the authenticity of the language used, I'm not really competent to judge, but clearly the target is spoken Lebanese Arabic; for 'what's this?' the author gives the Levantine "shu haada", rather than the literary "maadha haadha?", or forms used in Egypt or Morocco or somewhere else. The only basis for the statement by a previous reviewer that the author mixes modern standard Arabic with Levantine seems to be the slightly conservative spelling: "kayf" instead of "keef" (in the author's transliteration) for 'how', "ma9a salama" instead of "ma9a salame" for 'goodbye', "jadeed" instead of "jdeed" for 'new', etc. (though the speaker on the cassette uses the more colloquial, Lebanese pronunciations I listed second).
Some of the book's shortcomings are the fact that grammatical forms and vocabulary are really not worked with enough to be mastered, and that the transliteration system is a little odd and not conveniently summarized (for some reason, it uses standard Latin values for the short vowels, but flip-flops to a "SEE-it and SAY-it" sytem for the long vowels and diphthongs). The biggest drawback, though, is that the dialogues and story seem to have been an afterthought; there's no attempt to build up the vocabulary or structures needed for them.
So if you're looking for a single, good textbook (and you're a beginner), this isn't it--though you can learn polite phrases and some basic grammatical structures in the first few lessons. This is a book for someone who's "having more than one". Fortunately, my local library also had three other good items for the dialect: Pimmsleur's CD course in "Eastern Arabic" (Syrian dialect, no book), Hugo's "Arabic in Three Months", and "Just Listen and Learn Arabic" (the last two focusing on Jordanian Arabic).Colloquial Arabic (Levantine) (Colloquial Series) OverviewColloquial Arabic (Levantine) offers you a step-by-step approach to the Arabic spoken in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. Levantine Arabic is widely recognized as one of the major languages of Arabic radio and television. Specially written by an international authority on teaching Arabic as a foreign language, Colloquial Arabic (Levantine) is the ideal course for self-study or class use and requires no previous knowledge of the language.What makes Colloquial Arabic (Levantine) your best choice in personal language learning?Interactive- lots of dialogues and exercises for regular practice.Clear - concise grammar notes.Complete - including answer key and dictionary sectionHelpful - provides invaluable guidance on everything related to language in its social, cultural, and religious contexts.Innovative - the course also teaches the skills of reading Arabic script.Accompanying audio material is available to purchase separately on CD/MP3 format, or comes included in the great value Colloquials Pack.

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Beginner's Iraqi Arabic with 2 Audio CDs (Arabic Edition) Review

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Beginner's Iraqi Arabic with 2 Audio CDs (Arabic Edition) ReviewThis is not only a timely book, but one so well done
it makes a significant addition to the field. Growing
interest in Arabic in the United States, especially
Iraqi Arabic, has spurred a number of competent
teachers and scholars to write books, dictionaries,
handbooks, guides, and the like. Nawal Nasrallah and
Nadia Hassani's Beginner's Iraqi Arabic is one of
these new welcome contributions. It is an extensive
coverage of the language by native speakers that
manages to be very practical, concise, varied, and
entertaining. The two CDs are especially well-done and
they should make the chore of learning Iraqi dialect
more efficient.

Among the book's many virtues is a remarkably
down-to-earth approach that makes no assumptions about
learners' backgrounds, ability to learn foreign
languages, familiarity with the culture, and so on. It
provides readers with opportunities to learn the
spoken language dominant in Iraq, and opens up for
them the language through lively dialogues and usage
and pronunciation exercises so that they pick up
important cultural details. The dictionary part in the
book is extensive and very helpful since it has both
Arabic/English, and English/Arabic entries.
As a teacher of Arabic, I find the book very useful
and I intend to use it for my university classes.
Beginner's Iraqi Arabic with 2 Audio CDs (Arabic Edition) OverviewThis set includes a book and 2 CDs. This introduction to the spoken language of Iraq is suitable for classroom use and self-study. It is designed both for people with no previous knowledge of the Arabic language and those who know some Arabic and wish to learn the Iraqi dialect. The foundation of the book is a series of realistic dialogues that increase in complexity with each lesson. The language is based on the Baghdadi dialect, which is understood by a majority of Iraqis. All Arabic words are transliterated into Roman script for easy understanding. New vocabulary is explained prior to each dialogue, while additional vocabulary related to the topic is also provided. The grammar, expressions, and cultural material found in the dialogues are fully explained in their proper context. The grammar is also presented in a logical, step-by-step manner for easy mastery. Each unit is supplemented with exercises that test and reinforce the student's knowledge, with an answer key provided at the end of the book. The two-way glossary contains more than 5,000 entries, enabling the book to double as a dictionary for travellers to Iraq. An audio CD feature accompanies the lessons.

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Just Listen 'N Learn Arabic Review

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Just Listen 'N Learn Arabic ReviewThis book (and tapes) provide a basic introduction to the dialect of Arabic spoken in Jordan, Sryia, and Lebanon. The book covers everyday situations such as greetings, shoping, resturants and so on. After working through the book, I feel like I have a good grasp of basic Arabic for travel puropses. One thing I really liked about the book was the fact that there are many pictures or the Arab world which help to break up the lessons. The main fault I have with this book (or tapes) is that the vocab words are never slowly pronounced so you can hear all the sounds in the word. Instead, there is just a dialog which is spoken quickly. As a result, it is difficult to pick out the sounds of the individual words. Since this is basicaly a course on spoken Arabic, I think this is a major flaw. However, if you are dedicated and work through the lessons you can pick up a lot.Just Listen 'N Learn Arabic OverviewA fifteen-unit basic language course focuses on communication needs, including making travel arrangements, getting directions, shopping, and ordering from a menu.

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Arabic (Eastern), Conversational: Learn to Speak and Understand Eastern Arabic with Pimsleur Language Programs (Pimsleur Instant Conversation) Review

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Arabic (Eastern), Conversational: Learn to Speak and Understand Eastern Arabic with Pimsleur Language Programs (Pimsleur Instant Conversation) ReviewI was hesitant about learning Arabic, given how difficult others had made the effort out to be. This set of discs made it very easy. The repetition used (called the "Pimsleur Method") worked really well for me. I found myself repeating phrases from the CD's in my head long after listening to them. This is a great way to pick up a new language.Arabic (Eastern), Conversational: Learn to Speak and Understand Eastern Arabic with Pimsleur Language Programs (Pimsleur Instant Conversation) OverviewEastern Arabic is the dialect spoken in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine. Eastern Arabic is also very well understood in the eastern and southeastern parts of the Arab world -- Arabia, the Gulf Region, and Iraq. Pimsleur's Eastern Arabic is based on the dialect of Damascus, Syria. Arabic (Eastern), Conversational Sixteen 30-minute lessons of spokenEastern Arabiclanguage instruction. These sixteen lessons are the same as the first sixteen lesson of Pimsleur's 30-Unit Comprehensive Program.Each lesson includes an introductory conversation, and new vocabulary and structures and includes practice for vocabulary introduced in previous lessons.Essential grammar and vocabulary. Topics include: greetings, numbers, meals, shopping, telling time, scheduling activities, and asking and giving directions.No mindless repetition! Converse with native speakers in natural (and useful!) conversations.Easy, fast, fun and effective language acquisition.Completely Audio - anytime, anywhere. No computer necessary! Unlike expensive software programs which tie learners to a computer, Pimsleur courses are available in CD or mp3 format to meet your needs.Receive an instant credit of $150 to trade up from the Conversational to the full Level 1 Comprehensive CD course. Pimsleur® equals success. Just one 30-minute lesson a day gets you speaking and understanding like no other program.

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Complete Spoken Arabic (of the Arabian Gulf) with Two Audio CDs: A Teach Yourself Guide (Teach Yourself Language) Review

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Complete Spoken Arabic (of the Arabian Gulf) with Two Audio CDs: A Teach Yourself Guide (Teach Yourself Language) ReviewI found the book very good, and the CD's were excellent to listen to, with the book, on my i-pod. Highly recommended.Complete Spoken Arabic (of the Arabian Gulf) with Two Audio CDs: A Teach Yourself Guide (Teach Yourself Language) Overview
It's easy to teach yourself spoken Arabic!

Complete Spoken Arabic with Two Audio CDs: A Teach Yourself Guide provides you with a clear and comprehensive approach to Spoken Arabic, so you can progress quickly from the basics to understanding, speaking, and writing spoken Arabic with confidence.
Within each of the 24 thematic chapters, important language structures are introduced through life-like dialogues. You'll learn grammar in a gradual manner so you won't be overwhelmed by this tricky subject. Exercises accompany the texts and reinforce learning in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This program also features current cultural information boxes that reflect recent changes in society.
The accompanying audio CDs include audio exercises--performed by native speakers--that reinforce communicative skills.
Features:

Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience
Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress
Extra online articles at www.teachyourself.com to give you a richer understanding of the basics of the language


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Formal Spoken Arabic Fast Course Review

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Formal Spoken Arabic Fast Course ReviewThe book is written adaquately. The authors attempt to over simplify Arabic, which is among the most difficult languages. The book is intended to be used as an instructional guide for a classroom atmosphere not for individual use. Also, there are audio cassettes that one can purchase to use in cunjunction with the text, but as of yet I have not been able to locate them. Without them, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for one to learn to pronounce the vocabulary on your own. Granted, the book has expanded my vocabulary, but it is not at the pace that one should expect. Similarly, the poor organization of the book hinders one's attempts to grasp what is being taught. Finally, there are no lessons in reading or writing Arabic except a single page that shows the alphabet.Formal Spoken Arabic Fast Course OverviewProvides beginners with maximum linguistic and cultural exposure in about 100 hours of contact time.

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In-Flight Arabic: Learn Before You Land Review

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In-Flight Arabic: Learn Before You Land ReviewThis CD goes from "hello" straight into "where can I find the passport office?". If you worked at it, you could memorize this mouthful. But you would not have an understanding of what words you just said and you would have no ability to understand the answer that would come next even if you did.
If you want to learn a language, use the Pimsleur CD's. There is no better way to pass through your daily commute.In-Flight Arabic: Learn Before You Land OverviewLiving Language In-Flight Arabic is the perfect boarding pass to learning Arabic before you land.There's no better way to make use of all that spare time on a plane than to master the essentials of a language.This 60-minute program is the simplest way to learn just enough to get by in every situation essential to both the tourist and business traveler.The program covers everything from greetings and polite expressions to asking directions, getting around, checking into a hotel, and going to a restaurant.There are even sections for meeting people and spending a night on the town.Short lessons make In-Flight Arabic easy to use, and a handy pocket-sized insert is included as a cheat sheet for use on the go.

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Starting Out in Arabic Review

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Starting Out in Arabic ReviewI thought this product was very very good, the web sight assistant was great. you can print the whole program so that you can follow the audio tapes and see the actual words in front of you.Starting Out in Arabic OverviewAll the Arabic you need to get started in a simple audio-only program!Starting Out in Arabic is a beginner-level program on 3 CDs, and it includes short and simple lessons and dialogues. It covers all the basics, with plenty of repetition and practice so it is ideal for audio-only learning. Starting Out in Arabic is perfect if you want to learn while commuting, running errands, or at the gym, as well as if you want to learn at home and simply prefer an all-audio course. If you want to refer to written material, you can go online to download the audioscript.

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Formal Spoken Arabic: Fast Course with MP3 Files (Georgetown Classics in Arabic Language and Linguistics) Review

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Formal Spoken Arabic: Fast Course with MP3 Files (Georgetown Classics in Arabic Language and Linguistics) ReviewI have been using this book and cd for the past two weeks and have learned so much Arabic just from the first two lessons! I'm headed to Syria in a month and wanted to learn basics of the language so I can communicate with my in-laws. My husband is amazed at how much I've learned; he says the pronunciation is for Saudi Arabia, but I'll be understood fine when I go to Syria. The mp3 files are terrific, though I miss some of the nuances when I'm in my car (I hear them fine in a quiet environment or when I use headphones; initially I thought the phrase for "Keep the change" sounded a lot like "Hally Berry" - boy was I wrong!).
The way the mp3 files are arranged for each chapter is that first you hear a dialogue spoken in a regular fashion, then slowly so that you can repeat it after each speaker. You then have vocabulary from the dialogue (the list is basically every new word from the dialogue), then supplemental vocab to expand your knowledge. Then there are a few drills (listening comprehension) and grammar for the chapter. The dialogues are fairly easy to grasp if you listen to them repeatedly, and I don't feel overwhelmed by the amount of new words that I'm learning with each lesson.
The only problem is that the book is set up to use in a classroom setting, and unlike other language books I've used, there's no answer key to the lessons. Most of the answers are directly from the dialogue and you can figure others out, but I've had to ask my husband for help with a couple of the questions.
In the end, I would highly recommend this if you're trying to learn Arabic. It's not an easy language to learn, but if you listen to the mp3s over and over, it really sinks in! It helps for me that the book uses English letters to spell out the words - I don't think I can learn the writing also at this time (the dialogue is also written in Arabic on the opposite page, though, if you do want to learn it that way). Being able to hear the dialogue and look at it in the book really helps things sink in well. I've even been able to throw in Arabic words during regular conversation with my husband without straining hard to think of a relevant word.
By the way, I tried using the In-Flight Arabic cd initially, but it was pretty worthless to me. It went really fast and the speakers would say things once, hardly giving you enough time to comprehend what they were saying before they moved on to the next word/phrase. They taught the numbers by "1, 2, 3" "4, 5, 6" and so on, and if you've never heard Arabic before, all the words just run together - aargh! I don't even know if you can buy that cd from Amazon.com (I got it through Audible.com), but please, don't waste your money on In-Flight Arabic if you don't have a clue about Arabic before you begin (like me!).Formal Spoken Arabic: Fast Course with MP3 Files (Georgetown Classics in Arabic Language and Linguistics) OverviewThis Arabic language-learning classic is now enhanced with a bound-in CD of MP3 files. Designed to provide beginners in Arabic with maximum linguistic and cultural exposure in a short period (about 100 hours of contact time), this book consists of sixteen lessons with dialogs and exercises dealing with day-to-day scenarios: greeting people, getting a taxi, making phone calls, asking directions, discussing the weather, and effectively communicating with police and duty officers. The lessons help the reader to navigate situations at gas stations, marketplaces, restaurants, and in their own households. Formal Spoken Arabic (FSA) is a kind of lingua franca that is more natural than speaking Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), the literary form of the language. FSA uses the shared features of the various urban colloquial dialects, defaulting to Levantive (terms common to Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan) where the spoken dialects diverge. Each lesson includes cultural notes on American-Arab interactions, notes on learner strategies for managing Arabic conversations with a limited amount of language, and grammar explanations in clear, non-technical language.Although the main dialogue for each lesson is presented in Arabic script, transcriptions are used to accelerate spoken performance. "The FAST Course" includes grammatical explanations, English-Arabic and Arabic-English glossaries, appendices listing common idioms, courtesy expressions and other useful terms, instructor's notes, and drills aided and accompanied by the CD. Originally created for diplomats, this is an expanded and enhanced edition of a work originally developed by the U.S. State Department as a six-week intensive, or "FAST" (Familiarization and Short-Term) course, and is easily adaptable for students in Middle East area studies. Travelers heading for posts in the Arab world who quickly need to gain a basic ability to converse in day-to-day situations will find Formal Spoken Arabic FAST Course an invaluable companion.

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Thinking Arabic Translation: A Course in Translation Method: Arabic to English (Thinking Translation) Review

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Thinking Arabic Translation: A Course in Translation Method: Arabic to English (Thinking Translation) ReviewThinking Arabic Translation is an outstanding book for anyone attempting to make a coherent, cohesive translation from Arabic to English. It outlines the continuum that exists between an extremely literal translation (interlinear translation) and a free translation. In the former case, much of the Arabic grammar of the source text comes over into the translation creating an extreme source language bias so that the translation does not really respect English grammar. In a totally free translation, there is maximum bias from the English language to the extent, for example, that an Arabic proverb might be replaced by a completely different English proverb with the same general meaning. Thus, the colloquial Arabic proverb, "What passed died" (illi faat maat) might be replaced with "Let bygones be bygones." Somewhere in between these two extremes is a more balanced translation. In addition, Dickins discusses such topics as translation loss, the need sometimes to translate by omitting words, or by adding them. One of the problems I have encountered myself in translating is the tendency for many Arabic sentences to be far longer than the average English sentence, and generally lacking in much punctuation. This often requires sentence splitting. Dickins gives examples of how this can be done. Dickin's book is full of Arabic texts with examples of how they have been translated with all the issues involved. He even points out the ways in which Arabic and English typically organize their ideas differently, and the problems this creates in translating. It is, therefore, sometimes necessary to use textual restructuring. Really an outstanding book that I have found very useful.Thinking Arabic Translation: A Course in Translation Method: Arabic to English (Thinking Translation) OverviewThinking Arabic Translation is a comprehensive and practical 24-week course in translation method. Adapted from the successful French-based Thinking Translation (Routledge, 1992) it has been successfully piloted at Durham University.Clear explanations, discussion, examples and exercises enable students to acquire the skills necessary for tackling a broad range of translation problems. Examples are drawn from a variety of sources, including journalism and politics, legal and technical texts, and literary and consumer-orientated texts.A Tutors' Handbook is available, which contains invaluable guidance on using the course.

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Arabic-English Dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (English and Arabic Edition) Review

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Arabic-English Dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (English and Arabic Edition) ReviewThis dictionary is monumental in several ways. first, it is invaluable in that it seeks to provide the learner with the means to easily see how more complex words are built from the basic consonantal roots. second, the number and quality of the entries is excellent such that, regardless of what level the Arabic student is at, it won't disappoint. It certainly will be the only one you will ever need unless/until you are doing very specialized work. Thirdly, the fact that it is Arabic to English only is not disadvantageous if the learner approaches the language by learning to read basic stories and other writings once they have completed a basic, intermediate and advanced course and so have a strong foundation for thinking in the language, this dictionary will motivate one to continue learning Arabic through Arabic, where they need translation only to confirm their understanding of the meaning of specific words/phrases.
Moreover, it is one of those dictionaries that motivates you to read it, and it is easy to glean information from it so as to naturally build your vocabulary over time. it is designed by scholars to encourage the student who earnestly wants to learn the language rather than scaring them away.
And so, it is a must-have learning tool and resource (NOT JUST A REFERENCE!!!) for any serious student of Arabic, regardless of their level of specialty. it is essential for building THAT SOLID VOCABULARY one would need into college and graduate level studies.
The only negative thing (AND THIS BY NO MEANS TAKES AWAY ITS 'INVALUABLE/5STAR STATUS) about this 1130 page edition is that the font is no doubt on the small side, but that's what magnifying glasses are for. After living in Asia for a number of years, books are smaller and so one gets used to carrying around a pocket magnifier with them anyway.
Best wishes in your studies. this book will not only give you an intense jumpstart, but will help you stay motivated when you're 'down in the valleys'. Enjoy!!!Arabic-English Dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (English and Arabic Edition) Overview

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Eastern Arabic Phrasebook & Dictionary: For the Spoken Arabic of Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine/Israel and Syria (Hippocrene Dictionary & Phrasebook) Review

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Eastern Arabic Phrasebook & Dictionary: For the Spoken Arabic of Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine/Israel and Syria (Hippocrene Dictionary & Phrasebook) ReviewThe Kindle edition of this work suffers two major limitations. First, there is no way of quickly going to the entry of a word in the dictionary. For example, if you want to find out what "Now" is in Arabic, the only way to get to the entry is to use Kindle's Find function, and to skip through every use of the word "now" in the text until you come to the entry. This renders the dictionary impractical in many uses. Secondly, the Arabic is not given in Arabic script, but in transliteration only. This makes it of very limited use if you are learning the Arabic alphabet as part of learning Arabic.Eastern Arabic Phrasebook & Dictionary: For the Spoken Arabic of Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine/Israel and Syria (Hippocrene Dictionary & Phrasebook) OverviewFor the spoken Arabic of Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine/Israel and Syria. Contains a brief description of Arab grammar and a pronunciation guide. Also includes a basic key vocabulary with an intentionally easy-to-use pronunciation system in English spelling.

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An Introduction to Spoken Standard Arabic: A Conversational Course on DVD, Part 1 (Book & DVD) Review

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An Introduction to Spoken Standard Arabic: A Conversational Course on DVD, Part 1 (Book & DVD) ReviewI've been using this DVD/book package regularly for six months and it has been a great help in improving my speaking ability in Standard Arabic. As an older learner in an intensive Arabic program, I started benefiting a lot from this book once my class got about a third of the way through Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya with DVDs: A Textbook for Beginning Arabic, Part One Second Edition. Al-Kitaab was short on examples of things a learner of Arabic wants to talk about, and this supplement was exactly what I needed. Plus, this DVD is far more fun to watch.
This DVD/book has ten lessons of varying length, for a total of about an hour and a half of dialogue. The first seven lessons each show roughly half a dozen different speakers talking about themselves, their friends and families, their hobbies, and their daily and weekend activities. The speakers are a mix of advanced non-native Arabic speakers (seemingly American teachers of Arabic) and native speakers, all speaking rather naturally but quite understandably in Standard Arabic for students at the second-semester college level or above.
The last three lessons feature the narrator taking the viewer along while running a variety of errands in an Arab country (taking a taxi, checking into a hotel, exchanging money, etc.), plus a visit to a university, and finally a tour of a house, discussing the names of the rooms and the common objects in them.
I found it terrifically useful to see many examples of people talking about things in Arabic that I wanted to be able to talk about also. At first, I needed to use the book quite a bit to figure out unfamiliar words, but with repeated viewings I found I could internalize many phrases and use them with some changes in my own conversations in Standard Arabic.
The DVD is lively and of outstanding production quality. The native Arabic-speaking teacher and narrator who conducts the interviews has an ultra-clear voice, and as I improve in Arabic I notice how much of the grammar I encounter in Arabic class is cleverly woven into her introduction and conclusion of each lesson. The book also includes some exercises and drills.
The book contains all the transcripts from the DVD in a large font in fully-voweled Arabic, but not in English. Arabic-English vocabulary lists are provided at the end of each lesson, and Arabic-English and English-Arabic glossaries are at the end of the book, but on several occasions I couldn't find the translation of a word I was seeking and had to look it up elsewhere or ask my teacher. At first I struggled a bit with the Arabic-only DVD menus, but soon figured them out with a little trial and error.
I also have the same author's Focus on Contemporary Arabic (Conversations with Native Speakers) DVD/book package, but that one is aimed at a considerably more advanced student and doesn't have the presence of a narrator/interviewer who adds a lot to this one.
An Introduction to Spoken Standard Arabic: A Conversational Course on DVD, Part 1 (Book & DVD) OverviewThis text-and-DVD package can be used to improve the conversational skills of second- to third-semester beginning Arabic students. It helps students as they begin to express themselves in the Arabic, guiding them through language functions such as introductions, describing people and places, and discussing typical daily activities.

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Formal Spoken Arabic Basic Course (Georgetown Classics in Arabic Language and Linguistics) Review

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Formal Spoken Arabic Basic Course (Georgetown Classics in Arabic Language and Linguistics) ReviewThis is a great course. The dialogs in this course are interesting and sound similar to modern standard Arabic yet they have a more authentic feel. That seems to be the intent of the authors in their using an educated form of spoken Arabic. It is not as dialectal as pure amiyya, and it is not as formal as modern standard Arabic.
After learning a dialog one can go back and listen to it in its entirety without having to listen to one sentence spoken in Arabic and the next sentence in English and then back and forth in this manner. This a big plus for me. (There is only a little bit of recorded translation in the opening of the book.)
The lessons are very explanitive. The basic dialouges have detailed commentaries. Besides the audio, there is the text written in Arabic (no transliteration into English is found anywhere in the book), a detailed list of vocabulary, and sometimes the audio is given a second time at a slower pace so that one can repeat after the speaker.
The matrix dialouge is not explained at all, but it is made easier in that the subject matter is very similar to the basic dialouge's material. It is supposed to be hard, and it forces you to stretch out your ears a bit to try to catch all of the phrases. I found that the matrix dialouge is much easier after completing the unit that it is in, and it often contains the most natural sounding material.
There are also drills and grammar explanations. There are no answer keys for the drills, but they should be beneficial anyways.
Overall, this is arguably one of the best books for learning Arabic. One should have a fairly decent command of modern standard or classical Arabic before starting the course. (Don't attempt this book if you are a beginner.) It is good for building upon the knowledge of a literay form of Arabic in order to learn a spoken form. It doesn't teach any dialect of Arabic in particular. It is suppossed to be a somewhat neutral/educated form of speaking Arabic, but it does have somewhat of a Levantine feel to it at times.
Formal Spoken Arabic Basic Course (Georgetown Classics in Arabic Language and Linguistics) OverviewThis new edition, updated and with additional exercises, equips those who work, travel, and study in Arab countries with an educated form of spoken Arabic that functions flexibly in the face of various regional colloquial variants in the Arab world. Because the Arabic language has a number of very different spoken vernaculars, being able to speak and be understood in all Arab countries has become a challenge for English speakers. Ryding and Mehall have designed a course that teaches a standardized variant of spoken Arabic that is close to, but more natural than, the literary Modern Standard Arabic. With a non-grammar-based approach, this book fosters communicative competence in Arabic on all levels and develops speaking proficiency without abandoning Arabic script. It has proven to be clear, effective, and relevant to the needs of Americans living and working in the Arab East.Task-based lessons feature basic dialogues between Americans and Arabs, explanations of new structures, vocabulary expansion, and exercises; and provide gradual access to the sounds and script of Arabic by emphasizing listening and reading comprehension first, then slowly adding oral exercises and activities until the student has achieved basic proficiency. Not intended for self-instruction for beginners, "Formal Spoken Arabic Basic Course with MP3 Files" assumes some previous knowledge of Modern Standard Arabic, Arabic script and phonology, and previous or simultaneous instruction in orthography. This new edition includes a CD of MP3 audio exercises that are keyed to the text and drill students on listening and speaking. Lessons cover topics including: Heads of State; Cities and Countries; Official Titles; Geography; Systems of Government; Lost Luggage; Getting Acquainted; Establishing Common Ground; Seeking and Giving Information; Personal Needs and Family; Handling Problems; Eating Out; and, Bargaining and Buying.

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Speaking Arabic : English - Spoken Palestinian Arabic Self Instruction Course (Parts 1+2+3) (Speaking Arabic) Review

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Speaking Arabic : English - Spoken Palestinian Arabic Self Instruction Course (Parts 1+2+3) (Speaking Arabic) ReviewThe books make me feel as though I have a native speaker in the room. They quickly but easily teach you how to use basic Arabic for real conversations. I feel like I have had a day in an Arabic neighborhood instead of a day in the classroom. This course is the best I have seen. I have another book for Palestinian Arabic and it seems to have a grammar that favors the Arabic of Lebanon and Syria. These books have a grammar that seems more Egyptian.
One important feature to notice: the books contain only transliterations of the Arabic. There is no Arabic script at all. The recordings are very good but contain only the dialogue.Speaking Arabic : English - Spoken Palestinian Arabic Self Instruction Course (Parts 1+2+3) (Speaking Arabic) Overview

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Arabic-English Dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic Review

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Arabic-English Dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic ReviewFirst, I must say this is the only Modern Written Arabic (MWA) - English dictionary that the student of Arabic has to have. Others, Al-Mawrid, for example, are useful as supplements, and contain new vocabulary, and there is a more recent German edition (5th edition) of Wehr published by Harrassowitz, but this book has a standard of scholarship unrivalled by any other MWA-English dictionary. Middle Eastern published MWA-English dictionaries like Mawrid, for example, don't give the grammatical information learners of Arabic need, such as broken plurals, verbal vowelling, verbal nouns (masdars), let alone how verbs are used with prepositions, all of which Wehr tells the user.
Words are in root order, so maktaba (desk) [mktbh] and kaatib (writer) [k'tb] both are found under the verb kataba (to write) [ktb]. This really is the most useful way of ordering Arabic dictionaries for someone who's mastered the basics of Arabic grammar, though an alphabetic order dictionary is a help when you're starting and occasionally even when you're expert.
This dictionary is NOT a dictionary of Classical Arabic (although Beeston in his anthology of Bassar bin Burd reckoned that Wehr covered the vast majority of the vocabulary of this poet of the 8th Century AD). For Classical Arabic, Lane (perhaps supplemented by Hava's much more affordable al-Fara'id) is essential. But Lane is useless for modern Arabic. And if you're reading mediaeval Arabic, you will find Wehr fills in some of the gaps in Lane.
This dictionary is NOT a dialect dictionary, though it contains many dialect words that have found their way into the written Arabic of Egypt, Iraq, etc. Arabs don't write colloquial Arabic (at least not in formal contexts) and dialect dictionaries are specialized (colloquial Arabic-English dictionaries are usually written in a phonetic transcription rather than in the Arabic script). If you need a dialect dictionary, get one. This isn't one.
Other reviewers have rightly commented on the size of this dictionary, but some have confused editions. The 3rd (SLS paperback) edition was 114 x 162 x 45mm (4.5" x 6.4" x 1.75") in size, weighed 0.65 kg and had tiny 5.5 pt print. The 4th (SLS paperback) edition is larger: 216 x 130 x 40mm (5.2" x 8.5" x 1.5"), weighs 0.8 kg and has 7.5 pt print. This makes the SLS 4th edition's print much more readable than the SLS 3rd edition's.
The 4th edition, which is sewn-bound, is also more robust than the 3rd edition, which was perfect-bound - I'm on my 3rd copy of the 3rd edition while my 4th edition soldiers on after 8 years. However, the book is not really pocket sized any more (I still keep using my last copy of the 3rd edition as a pocket copy).
The 4th edition isn't cheap (it costs much more in England than in the US, though). If you're in the Middle East, you can pick up Librarie du Liban hardback copies of the 3rd edition (it has larger print than either of the two paperbacks - about 8 pt, the size of the original Brill 3rd edition - and is very clear) for a little less. There's also a hardback reprint of the pocket-sized 3rd edition available in the UK, which has rather unclear script. It's a straight copy of the SLS 3rd edition, and is Indian. It's usable, but is the least satisfactory version yet. But I'd advise students to get the SLS 4th edition if they can afford it. If you've lots of money, perhaps get the Harrassowitz hardback - I've not done so. And if you've money and German, get the 5th Harrassowitz edition (Arabisches Wörterbuch fur die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart).
[I have now bought the 4th Harassowitz English edition. The text is slightly crisper and half a point to a point larger, about 8 pt. The paper is less over-bleached, which makes it a bit easier on the eyes too. J.L.]Arabic-English Dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic OverviewIts scholarship, accuracy and reliability make it one of the most significant contributions to Arabic lexicography. It is hoped that this masterpiece will point the way ot wider use of modern lexicographical principles in the compilation of dictionaries for earlier periods of the Arabic language.

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